Products

Don’t have time to wait? Qarva Teleport is a real-time software solution that transports the content from one location to a secondary location in a sub-second. This means broadcasters don’t have to worry about the negative impact buffering or latency could have on the content during the media transfer.

Ideal for live television broadcasts, including Outside Broadcasts (OB) at news, music and sporting events, and digital broadcasts, Qarva Teleport ensures that the Quality of Service (QoS) is not disrupted and consumers no longer suffer with low quality content. Qarva Teleport is easy to deploy and integrate and works in conjunction with new and legacy systems, so broadcasters can guarantee that they can send and receive high bit rate content anywhere, at any time, with an Internet connection.
Consumers demand ﬁrst class content direct to their TV and mobile devices, and they don’t want to wait for it. For broadcasters the challenge remains to ensure that the point-to-point contribution of video content from one location to another, whether it is a live broadcast or a pre-recorded media ﬁle, meets the standards required and remains within budget.

Qarva Teleport – Send Content Across the Globe without it Costing the Earth

Don’t want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on costly satellite or dedicated ﬁbre channels but still want to send UltraHD 4K content to and from points across the globe at any time without geographical or technical boundaries? Qarva solves this problem with its latest intuitive, reliable and easy-to-integrate software solution – Qarva Teleport.
Harnessing the technological innovation behind its pioneering Qarva MultiPipe approach, Qarva Teleport is an unparalleled solution that eliminates the common complaints of contribution via the Internet to deliver an unrivalled service and experience. The inherent challenges of using a standard Internet connection to transport data over long distances has been well documented. Slow transfer speeds and the risk of a poor connection, used to mean compromising on the quality of the content or sacriﬁcing reliability during media transfers.

Broadcasters and content contributors no longer need to fear the Internet. Qarva Teleport solution enables the long- range delivery of high bit rate 4K streams over the open Internet by using the whole bandwidth of the local Internet connection.
The unique Qarva MultiPipe technology, which disassembles the media ﬁle at the primary location to send the data via the available bandwidth and re-aggregates the video stream at the end point, delivers exceptional high-quality, precision performance UltraHD 4K content.
With no geographical barriers for the delivery of high bit rate video at speeds of up to 35Mbps, Qarva Teleport signiﬁcantly reduces the transmission costs normally associated with satellite and ﬁbre solutions, whilst minimising operational costs.

Qarva has developed the ultimate in IP Television trick play; Qarva Pix. This is a unique feature providing “slide rewinding” similar to that seen on smart phones. Using a finger the viewer can sweep the video content forward or back and stop. The amount of content the scrolling frames represent is user chosen; an hour, a minute, a second. It is a highly accurate and immersive way for the user to choose exactly where they want to be in the content. When a frame is chosen it can be expanded with a hand gesture and re-divided into smaller segments so the user can find what they are looking for down to the second.

The Qarva Pix server, part of the Qarva QoE ecosystem, receives frames from the aQua server and renders them as a linear sequence of ‘film frames’ that can be manipulated to and from. When the user chooses to stop and returns to the play mode the device is seamlessly returned to the aQua buffered recording or the live stream.

Qarva’s solutions are also applicable to unmanaged networks and allow OTT providers to offer a service that can promise broadcast quality and pay-TV functionality.

A key benefit of Internet delivered TV is accessibility anywhere in the world for the subscriber (subject to rights restrictions). However with HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) delivers files of 10 second video parcels, resulting in significant buffering and delay with the viewer often watching with a 20-40 second delay to Live TV.

In addition, the further the subscriber is from the streaming server the more the delay as the bitrate deteriorates and so the video quality suffers. Major international providers have to address the problem with thousands of cascaded CDN (Content Delivery Network) servers around the world. This shortens the effective distance from server to subscriber but is very expensive and doesn’t resolve problems with delay to Live TV and slow channel change.

Qarva’s answer is Qarva Multipipe OTT Streaming Technology

Qarva Multipipe enables the subscriber to use the whole bandwidth of the local Internet connection for accessing video even from another continent, even in HD.

Qarva Multipipe protocol is based on TCP/IP protocol. The proprietary protocol divides the stream in to multiple sub-streams then uses persistent connections to multiple streaming servers around the world to deliver a subscriber’s chosen content, the Multipipe client then aggregates those connections to deliver a stream at the maximum capacity of the local bandwidth. Up to 32 servers can be concurrently connected to at the same time. For example: an average limitation derived from distance of 0.5Mb/s with this persistent connection means an improvement of delivery speed of up to 16Mb/s. So, no matter what the distance, your content be delivered at best available quality to the user from one CDN server.

As with all Qarva’s products legacy integration has been considered from the outset. Qarva MultiPipe can be integrated as a proxy agent on older platforms on the end user device; the aggregated video stream is output to the device’s legacy player as HTTP video stream or HLS video stream.

RECORD BREAKING RESPONSE TIMES – FASTER AND MORE VERSATILE THAN INDUSTRY NORM

10X FASTEST CHANNEL CHANGE SPEED

Qarva is all about making the IP Television experience as good, or better, than broadcast. Channel change delay is one of the most basic challenges to IP QoE, so this is where Qarva began its quest for the ultimate QoE solution for operators.

FastSwitch cuts channel change time 10 fold: typical channel change times in IP are 2-5 seconds – with FastSwtich this becomes 0.2 seconds. Research has shown that channel change time is a function that is fundamental to QoE and FastSwitch transforms performance.

The Fast Channel Change (FCC) server inserted between the multicast network and the set top creates a multichannel buffer meaning ‘zapper’ queries are answered instantaneously.

The same buffer also means massive improvement in the other common failing of IPTV; freezing and blocking from packet loss. The FCC server’s buffer means losses have already been recovered when the subscriber sees the channel.

For the provider this means increasing ARPU and reducing churn with service enhancements within the framework of a cost effective, quick deploy solution:

Cost efficient use of hardware – 200Gbps streaming capacity per commercial of the shelf 2U Server

Easy to scale; simply add more servers and benefit from automatic load balancing and geographical balancing

Fast deployment

Delivering trick play solutions has been a real challenge in IPTV as there is no easy way to instantly rewind Variable Bit Rate (VBR) live TV streams, until now. aQua’s technology allows one touch instant rewind and slow motion play from live TV without deterioration in quality. Using novel indexing technology, aQua offers precision performance in response to user input with no lag between input and execution.

When viewers Timeshift or Rewind or Restart, they expect speed and accuracy. Our unique indexing method ensures absolute precision. aQua Video Server features three storage tiers: RAM, Flash and hard drive, with subscriber usage data deployed to index content to the appropriate store so the most requested content is delivered the most quickly.

Unlimited horizontal scalability allows service providers to easily Scale Out, reducing expansion cost and conserving space while still allowing room to grow. aQua Video Server’s very economic use of hardware means high efficiency with an average server streaming capacity of 200 Gb/sec. This means aQua’s streams are highly cost effective with servers providing double or triple the capacity when compared to others on the market. aQua servers also feature automated load and geographic balancing.

The next step in broadcast quality is 4K UHD. OTT video on demand has stolen a march on other transmission paths by providing 4K UHD options today. However, they are doing so by using multiple CDNs and, even then, providing a maximum performance of about 15Mb/s.

Qarva wants IP television to always at least equal broadcast, and so has developed each of its QoE solutions to deliver 4K UHD over IPTV managed networks and on OTT services.

As 4K UHD becomes more popular and, therefore, more demanded by the subscribers of all OTT providers – including for live streaming – then degradation over distance becomes a problem that only mass deployment of CDNs can resolve – until now.

Qarva has demonstrated its UltraHD 4K solution by downlinking Eutelsat’s 4K UHD show channel in Tbilisi, then streaming it live at its full 30Mb/s over the open Internet via its aQua Server with MultiPipe to a smart television with its client software in Amsterdam, 4,000 kilometres away.

This application allows viewing of live TV channels as well as recordings, choosing the desired TV content from an Electronic Program Guide UI. Qarva’s Multiscreen App delivers all Qarva’s functionality to multiple devices including TimeShift control allowing the user to go directly to the specified time in the TV channel recording or search with fast and smooth rewind and fast forward.

Over The Top (OTT) technology, is used for Internet TV delivery. This gives ability to provide TV Service to subscribers over the Internet, “on top” of subscriber’s local Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Internet TV benefits:

Works with subscriber’s already existing Internet Connection

It is unlimited geographically, subscribers can be anywhere all over the world

It allows to watch TV using one account anytime and anywhere

It allows to watch channels and movies with the several devices: TV, PC and Smartphones.

Mostly used OTT TV protocol is HLS (HTTP Live Streaming). Using HLS protocol, Streaming Server is sending files by 10-second video chunks to the subscriber. This results in long buffering and big delay, subscriber is watching TV with 20-40 seconds delay from Live TV.

As mentioned above, the main and important benefit of Internet TV is – no geographical limitations. However, in case of HLS, the further subscriber is located from the streaming server, the more problem occurs, as connection bitrate is lower and as a result video quality is lower as well.

In case of using HLS protocol, in order to improve video quality, thousands of cascaded CDN servers around the world are needed. CDN is the Content Delivery Network. This is built or rented cascaded servers around the world. This shortens the distance between subscriber and streaming server and increases video quality. But the channel change time and delay from Live TV problems still exist. Is CDN real solution? A lot of servers around the world impose substantial costs when rented or built, but there are still unsolved problems and dissatisfied subscribers.

Qarva MultiPipe allows using whole bandwidth of local internet connection for accessing video even from another continent, getting HD quality instead of low 500Kbps quality which is hardly consumable.

Qarva MultiPipe is TCP/IP based protocol, which uses persistent connections to multiple streaming servers around the world to receive and aggregate content data. Up to 32 servers could be used at the same time. With usual far distance limitation per connection of 0.5Mb/s this gives us content delivery speed up to 16Mb/s.

Qarva MultiPipe could be integrated as proxy agent for older platforms or using provided libraries for most performance. In case of using MultiPipe proxy agent on end user device, aggregated video stream will be outputted to the device’s legacy player as HTTP video stream or HLS video stream.

Qarva MultiPipe key benefits:

High Bitrates, High Video Quality

Fastest TV Channel Change Time, down to 0.2 seconds.

Almost no Delay from Live TV (down to 2 sec)

Smoothest and precise Timeshifting.

Cost-effective solution, without need in lots of servers around the world.

FastSwitch – A Fast Channel Change IPTV software solution bundled with Packet Loss Recovery
Quality of Experience (QoE) is the predominant feature in viewer selection of IPTV services and is subject to many different factors. Viewers expect a high level of interactivity from new technology coupled with a low level of frustration, which can result from service and network problems. FastSwitch (FCC/PLR-T) enhances QoS and QoE by addressing two major problems in IPTV service: slow channel change time and less than satisfactory viewing due to packet loss. Universal compatibility regardles off hardware or software integration requirements makes FastSwitch cost effective and the preferred FCC solution.

Channel surfing is still a major aspect of the television viewing experience. Whether scrolling through the EPG or channel hopping to find something to watch, a Fast Channel Change time is a major factor in viewer satisfaction. Currently IPTV services without acceleration have a Zap Time of 2 – 5 seconds. Viewers want an interactive viewing experience without lag in channel change. In an interactive viewing experience, ½ second is perceived as instant and less than one second is perceived as good, but 2 or more seconds is perceived as a disaster. Our solution accelerates Channel Change Time by 10 fold. This means an average of .2 to .5 seconds to change the channel, never more than ½ second. Fast Channel Change allows consumers to interact with their IPTV service “instantly” and meets the viewer demand for high-speed interactivity.
Packet Loss Recovery (PLR)
QoE is directly related to the Quality of Service (QoS) an IPTV network can provide its viewers. One challenge faced by all providers is the simple fact that networks are imperfect and packet loss will occur as a result of these imperfections. These imperfections translate to the viewer as blocking and freezing of the programs they are viewing. These problems severely affect the interactive viewing experience and directly affect churn ratios. Packet Loss Recovery solves this problem by discovering and restoring lost packets, eliminating freezing and blocking. This has an immediate impact on QoE and a very positive effect on the perceived QoS.
Transparency – Virtually eliminate the time, energy and resources of an FCC/PLR software solution.

FastSwitch for DVB-C Hybrid

All the advantages of Qarva QoE for IP can now be implemented by cable operators using a hybrid DVB / IP network. Qarva’s very lightweight solution can be loaded on legacy boxes and is being integrated with several mainstream STB vendors. It brings Fast Channel Change, packet loss recovery and instant trick play to subscribers while delivering the savings of single server CDN distribution to the operator. Solutions for DVB S and DVD T will follow.

Qarva’s products and solutions reflect industry needs to meet consumer demands. Higher quality and better service while increasing ARPU and reducing churn. In this light Qarva offers cost effective service enhancements designed to immeadiatly impact a market and improve both the QoE and QoS. Our products represent many aspects of interactive television solutions and service enhancements, all within the framework of a cost effective, quick deploy solution

Key Benefits:

Cost efficient use of hardware – 200Gbps per 2U Server

Instant Rewind from Live TV

Slow Motion from Live TV/Timeshifting

Timeshifting – CatchUp/StartOver TV

Network PVR

VoD

Precision response to trick play commands – REW/FF/PLAY

Scale out technology

Qarva’s aQua Video Servers offers novel technology and trick play features designed to increase viewer QoE cost effectively. There is no easy way to instantly rewind Variable Bit Rate (VBR) live TV streams, until now. aQua’s technology allows one touch instant rewind and slow motion play from live TV without deterioration in quality. Utilizing novel indexing technology, aQua offers precision performance with user input. Timeshifting (Catch-Up TV) is smooth resulting in instant performance with viewer input and no lag between input and execution.

Precision in execution is also an important feature. When viewers Timeshift or manipulate program time, they expect precision from the moment time is manipulated to the precise moment time manipulation stops and viewing commences. Our unique indexing method ensures absolute precision when instant rewind from live TV or Timeshift begins and the precise moment the viewers wishes to pause or resume viewing.

Unlimited horizontal scalability allows service providers to easily Scale Out reducing expansion cost and conserving space while still allowing room to grow. In addition, aQua’s ecological use of hardware is very efficient with an average server streaming 200 Gb/sec. This results in aQua’s streams being cost effective and with servers that offers double or triple the capacity when compared to others on the market